I Walk Among You

For Iced Earth fans who think any record without Matt Barlow on it is not worth hearing, this EP is probably worth its weight in gold. For people who enjoyed Tim "Ripper" Owens' work more, it's probably not worth buying. People who enjoy both eras of Iced Earth migh want to check this out, but with caution. I belong in the last group, and I have mixed emotions about it.

The real meat of this EP is of course the new track, I Walk Alone. That's where Matt's voice really shines through. Ripper could have sung the song pretty well, but it's so suited to Matt's voice that I have a suspicion Schaffer altered it after Matt rejoined the band. The songs were originally written for Ripper, after all. But regardless of who's singing, it's still an excellent song and a worthy successor to Framing Armageddon; I just hope it accurately shows what the next album will be like.

The next three tracks are re-recordings of some of the best songs on Framing Armageddon with Matt on vocals (though the instrumentation isn't changed at all, save in production). The first one is Setian Massacre, and with Matt, the song lives up to its name. Sadly, Matt really massacres the song, and it was definitely better with Ripper. Matt just doesn't have quite the high range that Ripper did and it's these songs with high notes where Ripper beats Matt hands down. Matt doesn't even properly hit the highest notes in the three opening screams. So 1-0 for Ripper, I'm afraid. Good thing Matt didn't try to do Ten Thousand Strong or Framing Armageddon, though.

I bought the physical CD as well as the extra track from iTunes, A Charge to Keep. This one I have more mixed feelings for. Matt puts more emotion into the verses, but Ripper again beats Matt in the chorus. It's again a matter of Matt's emotion and lower range versus Ripper's high notes. And Matt's voice doesn't fit layered vocals nearly as well as Ripper's. I'm gonna call this one a tie.

The last one, The Clouding, is the longest track, and fortunately, it is also the one where Matt's voice shines. Slow, emotional songs à la "A Question of Heaven" are where Matt excels, and this is one of those songs. Even in the last four minutes, which is the part with the heavy riffing, Matt beats Ripper, but only when he sings alone. His voice, again, doesn't suit the layered vocals. However, this song is definitely the best of the remixes, and the change of singer turns a good song to a great song.

Overall, this EP really isn't worth it for the re-recordings alone, unlike the last EP, "Overture of the Wicked", where the re-recordings of the Something Wicked trilogy was really an interesting change. There, the whole songs were replayed and re-recorded, and even the whole vocal textures were changed, which meant that the songs sounded natural for Tim, instead of just Ripper trying to sing Matt's notes. That is not the case on "I Walk Among You", where Matt is just trying to sing the same notes as Ripper and fails miserably in most cases. It was still interesting to hear how Barlow fared, however.

However, the new song is definitely strong, just like Ten Thousand Strong was on the last EP. It's the real content of the EP, and the re-recordings are just bonus. And ultimately, it did what it was supposed to do: made me anticipate The Crucible of Man even more.